CCSA has partnered with the San Diego Film Festival to offer charter school supporters discounts on the festival’s many offerings. The Festival is showing Waiting for “Superman” at 7:30 p.m. on October 1 at the Gaslamp Theatre (701 5th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101). After the film, Guggenheim will answer questions during a session moderated by Christa Coleman, the school leader from KIPP Adelante Preparatory Academy.

During the same week that Waiting for “Superman” premieres across the nation, a petition by Redwood City’s Summit Public Schools to open a new high-quality charter school in San Jose’s East Side Union High School District has been denied. Summit Prep is one of the five schools featured in “Superman;* it also was recently ranked by Newsweek magazine as among the top 100 schools in the nation.

In a show devoted to the upcoming documentary “Waiting for Superman”, Oprah recognized six charter school networks throughout the nation with a $1 million donation from her Angel Foundation. In California, the award will go to Aspire Public Schools, which operates some 30 charter schools in cities like East Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento. The schools serve more than 10,000 students, a majority of which come from low-income neighborhoods.

Grassroots legislative advocacy is a way to establish relationships with your local Legislators, or to renew existing relationships. Advocacy can change attitudes, tell your school’s story to important decision-makers, dispel myths about charters, and help the movement.

Have you registered your team for the 18th Annual California Charter Schools Conference? The conference will be held March 7-10, 2011, at the San Diego Convention Center. The theme will be `”The Future of California Public Education.” Lock in savings by registering before our Super Early Bird Registration Deadline on Friday, October 22. Everyone who registers by Oct. 22 will be entered to win a free registration/hotel package.

CCSAs Legal Advocacy Team and the law firm of Middleton, Young & Minney will provide charter schools and charter school developers with an overview of Proposition 39, the law that requires school districts to provide reasonably equivalent facilities to charter schools.

Now that summer has ended, thousands of students are going back to school this year as new charter school students. In order to highlight the growth of charter schools across the state, as well as our members’ continued commitment to the movement, the Association’s Communications Team embarked on a proactive media outreach effort centered on a “back to school” theme.

Do you know an incredible teacher or principal who is leading the way in fighting for great schools in Los Angeles? The new documentary, Waiting for “Superman, which hits theaters in L.A. on Sept. 24, is an opportunity to engage the public in education reform. The movie’s promotions team has now launched an LA-focused website where they will be profiling local educators. We invite you to pitch someone to be featured or to suggest other content for their site.

When the price tag of Los Angeles Unified School District’s RFK Community Schools was revealed this summer, charter schools were more than disappointed. That’s because the same district had denied equitable facilities to dozens of charter schools, leaving many to pursue other options, including building or renting their own space. The “most expensive school in U.S. history” is the subject of a Wall Street Journal article that gives the example of Larchmont School, a charter which was forced to spend $174,000 on rent, utilities and maintenance instead of on school supplies or educational programs.

Twenty years since its inception, the charter school community is beginning to rely on the growing parent constituency to help take control of their students’ education in a broader sense, as well. There are approximately 340,000 students in California public charter schools today. That translates to at least half a million charter school parents. CCSA has recently joined forces with Families That Can (FTC) to harness that power, helping parents understand their latent advocacy potential and converting that potential energy into kinetic, sustainable momentum for charter school advocacy goals on behalf of their children.

Aspire Public Schools is a non-profit charter management organization that operates small, high quality public charter schools across California. James Wilcox, Aspire’s Chief Executive Officer, will be featured on a special education-related Oprah Winfrey Show airing on Monday, September 20, 2010.

The principle behind Proposition 39 is one of equity and fairness for all public school students, irrespective of whether they attend public district schools or public charter schools in their communities. Prop. 39 represents the tangible, pragmatic embodiment of that principle in the most publicly visible sign of a successful school - the building. Charter schools across California scrap and scrape for workable facilities solutions each year; that is why the Association has embarked on a multi-year, statewide campaign to seek full implementation of Prop. 39. CCSA advocacy on behalf of schools applying for facilities under Prop. 39 therefore benefits all charter school students in the state.

Jed Wallace, President and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), released the following statement today applauding the winners of National Blue Ribbon Awards, which include five California charter schools.

Northern California will see tremendous charter school growth this school year, despite precarious budgetary times; 22 charters are opening this school year in the area stretching north from San Joaquin County to Butte County. The Sacramento Bee has the story.

The charter school movement is dependent upon the hard work of visionary founders, leaders, and authorizers, plus dedicated teachers and volunteers and inspired students. The Association is proud to recognize several of them this month.

Application deadlines for Proposition 39 facilities for the 2011-12 school year are right around the corner, so it is critical charter schools begin the process now. In order to assist member schools, CCSA will be providing free workshops and webinars, pro-bono legal reviews for member applications in selected regions, and technical support from CCSA’s Help Desk. We will hold a webinar on September 21, as well as in-person workshops on September 23 (Northern California) and September 27 (Southern California).

The Robert F. Kennedy Learning Center’s excesses illustrate binge-spending on behalf of the district, as well as the district’s inequity toward other students, especially those served by charter schools. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial on the issue details how charters are more nimble and efficient when it comes to building facilities and serving students, using the Green Dot charter management organization’s successes to point out the stark contrasts.